Hi, my name is Tiffany and today I'll be sharing my testimony with you guys. I grew up in an American Christian international school in China where I had the privilege to learn about Christ starting from a young age. Memorizing scripture, hearing Bible stories, and singing children praise songs at school were routinely embedded into my weekly schedule.

I prayed to receive Christ as my Lord and Savior when I was seven. I had a terrible fear of sharks after accidentally catching a glimpse of the movie Jaws at my cousin's house. And my parents shared the gospel with me one summer afternoon and told me the power Jesus has to quiet the seas and triumph over any evil spirit and demon.

Christ seemed real to me and I prayed to receive Christ that day in my life at home. As a Taiwanese American at a school in China with predominantly Korean students, I was always a minority who wanted to fit in. As a result, I frequently worked to draw attention to myself.

I lied to my peers and exaggerated my circumstances to receive praise and empathy from them. I have come to realize how foolish and futile my efforts were because salvation is truly the work of God from beginning to end, separate from my works. I loved Christ, yet he was not my greatest love.

I liked the idea of a Savior from my hellbound destiny, but there wasn't much surrender to him as my Lord. In 2015, my family moved back to California. Going into my sophomore year of high school, I found myself working to fit in once again. Some of my friends struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts.

I wrestled to understand why God would place such trials in people's lives. My heart went out to them and I desired to be a light, but my efforts were inherently selfish and ultimately ineffective because I thought that I could save them. And I felt guilty when I saw that I couldn't.

My bitterness also surfaced in having a bad attitude towards my parents. And in the midst of it all, I found myself face to face with my repeated sins of lying and working to gain the pity and approval of man. Even in the way I wrote my testimony, I highlighted instances that were self-glorifying.

In my mind, I said that Christ is enough for me, but in my heart, he felt so intangible. Christ humbled me, reminding me he is the way, the truth, and the life, as he tells us in John 14 6. Putting myself on a pedestal and giving myself the glory was only drawing my friends further away from Christ as I unintentionally encouraged them to find refuge in the brokenness of a fallen world, as I myself was also doing.

I got baptized by sprinkling on Easter in 2017 with a desire to publicly proclaim and commit my faith in Christ. A mentor convinced me to sign up for a discipleship course the summer after I graduated from high school. For the first time, I truly understood how secular remedies are only band-aid fixes that never truly tackle the heart of the issue, sin.

I began to understand how no earthly person or thing can heal the void in people's hearts. Christ is the only one who can satisfy. During the course, the pastor asked me how I thought God viewed me and where I would go if I died that day. I knew the answer, but I surely did not feel it.

Years of feeling like I did not belong, coupled with the deceit I told both others and my self made me feel unworthy of his love. Through the mentor and his pastor's demonstration of Christ's love, I started to ask myself why I felt the need to chase after the approval of mankind.

I came to a deeper understanding that salvation is truly by faith and faith alone. God is working, even when my heart may seem cold and he may seem distant. In my first year of college, I joined a small group. I started doing daily devotions and reading scripture for myself for the first time.

Rather than reading the Bible and memorizing verses for an A on an exam, his truth started transferring from head knowledge to heart knowledge. I understood I cannot serve two gods at once by seeking the simultaneous approval of both God and man. Matthew 16.35 says, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." I am called to deny myself and take up my cross daily and follow him.

I have come to recognize there is no greater joy in life than to know Christ. The world and all its riches will waste away and thus placing any hope in the fleeting gratifications the world may offer is futile. He pursues me relentlessly, even when I push him away, thinking that I know better and assuring myself that my sinful ways would get me further.

I am so undeserving of his grace, yet his love that surpasses all understanding is a mystery that I am so thankful for. I am getting baptized through immersion to complete the picture of baptism the way Christ commanded. As a follower of Christ, I want to mirror what he has modeled and called me to do.

While salvation does not promise me a life free from troubles, I know Christ is truly enough for me and my home is ultimately not on this earth. I am far from perfect and I still sin daily, but I know that my identity is in Christ and only he can truly satisfy.

I know my future is in his hands and I want to follow where he leads me. Amen.